Survey reveals that majority in the US ask to wear masks 0:59
(CNN) -
Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are at record levels across the country, and authorities estimate that the US will soon bear the full brunt of another wave of infections fueled by meetings of Thanksgiving.
"We have not yet seen the full effect of a potential surge on a surge," Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Friday night.
“The journey associated with Thanksgiving, the congregation in family and social gatherings with people inside, sometimes without masks.
This may peak in two to three weeks from now. '
And that increase will come just as travel and socializing are likely to resume over the Christmas holidays.
"So we are really very concerned," Fauci said.
The grim prognosis comes as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisors are scheduled to meet to discuss requests from Pfizer and Moderna for emergency use authorization of their vaccines against the Covid-19, which some state leaders say they expect to receive the first doses of in the coming weeks.
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But health officials warn that while some Americans may receive a vaccine by the end of the year, the country likely won't see any significant impacts until late spring.
Meanwhile, experts project an incredible challenge for the coming months.
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Another 260,000 deaths projected in the coming months
More than 220,000 new infections were reported on Friday, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
And more than 101,200 people are hospitalized with covid-19 across the country, another record, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
Hospital systems across the country are reaching a critical point.
In Miami-Dade County, Medical Director Peter Paige says hospitalizations have skyrocketed nearly 140% in the past two months, while ICU rates have risen 58% over the same time period.
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"This is particularly concerning considering that we really don't know that the most challenging days may still be ahead," Paige said.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday called the accelerating pandemic "the greatest threat to life in Los Angeles we have ever faced."
Hospitalizations in Los Angeles County have tripled in the past week, he said, and the county is likely to run out of beds in two to four weeks if cases continue to rise.
And more than 10,000 people have died from covid-19 this month, and every day in December so far more than 2,500 deaths have been reported daily in the US.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington projects that daily deaths will peak at more than 2,900 by mid-January.
So far, more than 278,800 people have lost their lives to the virus in the US since the start of the pandemic.
The IHME predicts there will be about another 260,000 American deaths over the next four months.
"We are facing quite a gloomy series of months," said Dr. Chris Murray, director of the IHME on Friday night.
"Although the hope for vaccines is there, it will not be there in time to cope with that surge in January and February."
The time when most Americans will start getting vaccinated
Meanwhile, Fauci told CNN late Friday that healthy Americans, not elderly, with no known underlying health conditions will likely start getting vaccinated in late March or early April.
"Once you get into April, probably full on those guys," Fauci said.
"That is the reason why we would like to see once it enters the 'open season', in the sense that anyone can get it, we really have a full field for people to get vaccinated, because if the immense Most of the country, the faster it will have that umbrella of herd immunity, which would be so, so important to bring the level of that virus, well below the threatening level.
"The sooner we get there, the better off we'll be."
Earlier this week, vaccine advisers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted 13-1 to recommend that both healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities are first in line for any vaccine that gets the FDA green light.
Admiral Brett Giroir, undersecretary of health for the US Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday that at least 20 million Americans are expected to be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the month.
"The FDA will also consider authorization of emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine after the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologics meeting on December 10, and we anticipate that Moderna's vaccine will be considered by the committee the following week," Giroir said in recorded remarks during a meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee hosted by HHS on Friday.
"We all hope they will be the first and second in a series of vaccines that will be considered for an emergency use authorization."
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Face masks remain essential tools
But the start of vaccines will not spell the end of COVID-19, health officials warn.
"Vaccines and vaccination will add an important, important and powerful tool to the set of tools that we have," said Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Program at the World Health Organization.
"But by themselves they won't do the job."
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added that governments should not let their guard down, saying health care systems could still give way under pressure.
"Progress in vaccines encourages us all and now we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
"However, the WHO is concerned that there is a growing perception that the covid-19 pandemic is over."
Top US public health officials have emphasized that face masks will continue to play a crucial role in helping slow the spread of the virus and save lives in the coming months.
According to the IHME team, if 95% of Americans wore masks, about 66,000 lives could be saved by April 1.
MORE: Masks Critical to Stopping Covid-19 Spread, Even at Home, CDC Says
The CDC, which has gradually strengthened its recommendations on the use of masks, indicated on Friday that masks remain "critical" in controlling the spread of COVID-19, even sometimes in the home.
“Because the increased risk of transmission has been documented among the household contacts of COVID-19 patients, keeping the home safe requires physical distancing, the use of the other public health strategies outlined here, and in particular the use of consistent and correct use of face masks (outside the home and in some circumstances within the home) to prevent the introduction and transmission of (COVID-19), ”the CDC team wrote.
CNN's Andrea Diaz, Anastasia Graham-Yooll, Maggie Fox, Jacqueline Howard, and Tina Burnside contributed to this report.
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